El Paso
Community College
Public Community College in El Paso, TX. Six-year graduation rate 24%. Median 10-year earnings $35,212.
Ten-year median earnings of $35,212 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Only 24% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $6,566. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 4.8% of students move from the bottom income quintile to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.19 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.1% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 24% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 24% graduate within six years. 63% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about two in five are gone before sophomore year. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. Transfer-out runs to 13% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Part-time students fare worse, returning at 52% — relevant if you plan to work while enrolled.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 23,868 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $3,077 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($2,509 versus $9,353), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Only 37% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. Only 2% take federal loans. Private borrowing is not captured in this figure.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 2,339 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $2,509 |
| $30–48k | $2,792 |
| $48–75k | $5,298 |
| $75–110k | $7,892 |
| $110k+ | $9,353 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 399 of these 23,868 students, totalling $1,915,975 — an average of $4,802 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (El Paso County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)